READING'S controversial speed camera van is raking in tens of thousands of pounds in just a few hours.

READING'S controversial speed camera van is raking in tens of thousands of pounds in just a few hours.

Hundreds of motorists speeding along Vastern Road and King's Road are being snapped and ticketed every day.

And it emerged yesterday that speed cameras ticket so many people in the Thames Valley that millions of pounds are being returned to the Government because officials do not have enough road safety projects to spend it on.

Police brought in the speed camera vans 18 months ago and have targeted the two 30mph roads because they are among Reading's worst accident blackspots.

Drivers have complained the van is parked in a bus stop in King's Road and on the

double yellow lines in the centre of Vastern Road but police say it is legal.

During the past five days 415 people have been snapped speeding by the van in 11 hours.

A driver was caught on Vastern Road every 70 seconds last Thursday alone.

If all the drivers receive £60 tickets the fines will total almost £25,000. About one in eight drivers is currently offered a place on educational speed awareness courses instead and so that would bring the van's yield down to more than £21,000 - a typical weekly wage for many Premiership football players.

Both Chris Scroxton, project manager for Thames Valley Safer Road Partnership, and PC Julian Weal, the casualty reduction officer for Reading, said yesterday the van was being used to cut injury accidents on the roads and not to raise cash.

PC Weal said he was staggered at the number of people who continue to be caught speeding, with some doing over 70mph.

"I have a responsibility to reduce casualties in Reading and when this has received the attention it has it is frightening the message is not getting home," he said.

"It is not a numbers game. The gross income is quite staggering and it is quite frightening the number of people being detected. But I would be quite happy to catch just five people in two days down there."

He added: "Some of the people speeding are not

wearing seatbelts and are talking on mobile phones and those are the ingredients for a cake of disaster."

In the past three years there have been 25 injury accidents in Vastern Road and 103 in King's Road.

Thames Valley Road Safety Partnership keeps fine money to use on road safety projects but Mr Scroxton said millions of pounds was being returned to the Government because too much was coming in.

"The offence levels down there are staggering," he said. "Don't give it to us. We don't need the money - give us a reason not to be there.

"All the money we don't use goes straight back to the Government. We use about two-thirds or less of what we get in. We won't spend half of that next year."